Something to Lean On
by LadyLefaye
Summary: A story about why Willy always carries a cane.


**A/N: **This fic was written in response to a request made at the fic on demand LJ community for a story about why Willy always carried a cane. It's based off of the recent movie Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Hope you enjoy!

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It had seemed like such a good idea at first. He'd open up his factory, find the perfect heir and rest secure in the knowledge that his beloved factory would continue on after he was gone. It should have been simple. But he'd forgotten to take into account the fact that he really didn't like children. Or people at all for that matter. And this lot seemed particularly vile. 

"What was that?" Willy asked. He had been trying to tune out their incessant chatter, but this one child seemed determined to get an answer out of him.

"I _said_, 'how old are you?'" the girl asked with a curl of her lip, punctuating her remark with a loud snap of her gum. "I mean, you must be pretty old if you need to walk around with a cane everywhere you go."

Willy gradually drifted to a stop. He was totally oblivious to the stares of his guests as his mind filled with memories. He'd never forget the day he started carrying a cane….

He had only been away from home for a week. Determined to truly leave his father behind for good, he had stowed away on a train headed out of town, not caring where it went so long as it was somewhere far away. But when it had stopped, he found himself in unfamiliar territory, with no money, no friends, nothing to eat, and nowhere to sleep.

After several days of sleeping on the ground and having nothing to eat, he had become desperate and started begging for food. Unfortunately, all of his dental gear made him quite the gruesome sight, and instead of taking pity on him, a gang of teenage boys decided to have a bit of fun and beat him thoroughly when they saw him begging on the street.

When he awoke, he found himself in a hospital bed. His leg was bound in a cast, which at first frightened him…he had never broken a bone before…but all feelings of dismay left him when he brought his hand to his face. The horrific headgear that his father had forced upon him was gone! He had tried in vain to pry it off himself, but his efforts only earned him an aching jaw. But now the last bit of his father's control over him had vanished. He later found out that the beating he experienced had mangled his orthodontics beyond repair, so the nurses had removed the offending equipment. But the why of the matter was unimportant to him…all that mattered was that he was truly free for the first time in his young life.

Of course, the hospital staff had a lot of questions for him. It was obvious he couldn't have been homeless for too long if he had such fancy equipment in his mouth. They wanted to know where his parents where, where he lived, how he'd been hurt…and on and on. Now normally, Willy would have been against lying. He didn't like being lied to (he experienced enough of that from his father), so he tried not to do it to others. But this was a matter of self preservation, so when the matter of family came up, Willy told them that his parents had both died not too long ago, and he'd been wandering since then. He made a very tragic figure, lying there all broken in bed talking about the death of his family, and he even managed to force a few tears out. This put a rather abrupt end to his questioning, with sighs of "hasn't the poor boy been through enough?" After a few days rest in the hospital, Willy was packed off to an orphanage with nothing more than a cane and a change of clean clothes to tide him on his way.

To many, it might have seemed like things were rather grim, but to Willy, it was the start of a new life free from oppression. And even though his leg injury had long since healed, Willy always felt deeply attached to the cane he had received. Physically, it had supported him while he healed, but emotionally it had been something even stronger to lean on. It was a symbol of his freedom. He now kept the original cane safely locked away in a vault, but he still carried a cane of some sort with him wherever he went. As a matter of fact, a whole room in his home was devoted to housing the assortment of canes he had picked up over the years.

"What's wrong with you?" Violet asked, her grating voice and snapping gum drawing an abrupt halt to Willy's reminiscing.

Willy snapped out of his daze, looking around at the worried faces of the people surrounding him. "Sorry," he giggled. "Just thinking about how much I like canes. There very useful, you know. I highly recommend them."

"What would I need a cane for?" Violet said with a sneer. "Do you think someone who can do this needs a cane?" she asked as she began to do handsprings in a circle around him.

Willy casually stuck his cane out a few extra inches, causing Violet to trip and fly headlong into a nearby patch of spongy marshmallow mushrooms. "Maybe if you had a cane, you wouldn't fall down so much," Willy said with a forced laugh and a tight smile.

Before anyone could point out that he had actually tripped the girl, he began to herd them forward, effectively cutting off their complaints. "Come along now…lots to see. We wouldn't want to fall behind."

With a few quiet grumbles, everyone began to warily make their way forward. Willy gaily swung his cane in a circle by his side. He now had a whole new reason to be fond of this particular item. It seemed like it might be very effective at keeping these annoying children at bay.

At the very least, he was pretty sure that blonde one wouldn't try hugging him again.


End file.
